


Tell Me Again

by TheCookieOfDoom



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Force-Sensitive Hux, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Secret Relationship, benarmie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-10-20 17:23:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10667322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCookieOfDoom/pseuds/TheCookieOfDoom
Summary: Ben moved his hand from Armitage’s hair to brush lightly down the bridge of his nose, and Armitage smiled; it felt like sunlight on his skin.





	Tell Me Again

“Why do you let him do this to you,” Ben asked, his fingertips ghosting over a bruise on Armitage’s cheek. It was one of many that were littered over his body, mixed among the ones that were lovingly left there by Ben. “You have as much power in the force as I do. You could stop him.” 

Armitage took Ben’s hand with a small, wistful smile, lifting it to kiss his knuckles. He wished it was that easy, but the Force couldn’t fix every problem. It just created others. “He can’t know about me, that I’m force sensitive. He would kill me. He hates the jedi more than anything.” Armitage was still smiling as he spoke, his tone suggesting he was only joking about the severity of his father’s reaction. But Ben could see right through him, he knew how much Armitage feared his father. And Ben certainly wouldn’t put it past the man; he had no love for his son. If he regularly beat Armitage now for small offenses, then who know what his limit would be if confronted with the truth of what his son was. 

Still, Ben would give anything to take Armitage away from his dreary planet, and his nightmare of a father. “Come away with me,” he said, pleaded, his big brown eyes so open and earnest. “When my mother leaves here with me, come with us. You don’t have to stay here, Armie. My mom will take you in, and you can come to the Jedi academi with me.” 

He took Armitage’s hands, bringing them up to his lips to kiss his palms softly, like the brush of a butterfly's wings over his savaged, scarred flesh. “Let me keep you safe,” he mumbled, looking up at Armitage. 

Armitage wanted to. He would love nothing more than to run away with Ben and escape his father forever, but he was so afraid. What if his father tracked him down, found him with the heart of the enemy? Deserters deserved no mercy in his father’s eyes, and he knew that if he was caught running away, his father would see him as a traitor. Likely punish him as one, as well, even though he was just a boy, only sixteen years old. 

“I can’t,” he said, sorrow laced through his voice. “I  _ can’t _ .”

Ben pulled him close, hugging him tight, his face buried against the stiff academy uniform collar. Armitage buried his fingers in Ben’s thick black curls, the padawan braid tickling his wrist, closing his eyes as he clung to the other boy. 

“I love you,” Ben mumbled, his voice muffled by the scratchy fabric. He held Armitage around the middle in an almost crushing grip. He was such a strong boy already, Armitage could imagine how gorgeous he would be in a few years, once he was older and more filled out. He would likely be devastating. And Armitage wouldn’t be around to see it. He wasn’t stupid, he knew their relationship-their little forbidden tryst-had an expiration date. 

“Stop that,” Ben said, distressed as he abruptly pulled away and looked at Armitage with wide eyes. “Stop thinking like that, we don’t have an expiration date.”

“Oh, Ben. My love,” Armitage sighed, leaning in to press his forehead against Ben’s. His own cold, steely blue eyes fell closed, unable was he to bear looking at Ben as he spoke the words he wish weren’t true. “We can’t do this forever. Not with who our parents are.” They would be separated, either unknowingly by their parents when Leia left the planet, or by death in the coming war that most preferred to pretend wasn’t coming. But they would not stay together, as much as ben might try to convince him otherwise. 

_ Tell me again _ , he thought. _ Tell me how you’ll take me away, where will we go?  _ He could feel Ben’s consciousness brushing against his own; they were always in each other’s thoughts, ever since Ben taught him how to read minds. Even when they couldn’t physically be together, they always were together. 

“Warm,” Ben said. “I’m going to take you somewhere warm, and pretty. Like Naboo. I’ve only been there a few times, but I think you would like it.” 

Armitage pushed Ben back, urging him to lay down. He laid with his head resting on Ben’s chest, over his heart. Their hands were laced, arms outstretched to the side. 

“My grandmother was the queen of Naboo,” Ben said, smiling as he ran his free hand through Armitage’s hair. “It’s a peaceful planet, with rolling plains of soft grass stretching as far as the eye can see. And warm, clear blue lakes that shimmer like crystals in the sunlight.” 

“It sounds beautiful,” Armitage said softly. He had never seen anything as lovely as what Ben described. He’d never been away from Arkanis, which seemed to always be raining. It was so gloomy all the time, unpleasant. 

“It is. It’s not cold like here, either. It’s always warm. Like a perfect, clear summer day.”

“How long would we stay there?” 

“As long as you wanted. We could stay forever. Get a small house by a lake, just us. We could go into town only when we absolutely needed to. It could just be you, me, and the countryside. Maybe a cat, too, that we could raise.” 

“Millie,” Armitage said. 

“Yes, Millie. She would be orange, like your hair. With lighter, barely noticeable stripes,” Ben said, smiling against Armitage’s hair as he described the cat Armitage had always imagined having, since he’d first seen strays running around a space station, before he;d come to Arkanis. “And her eyes would be green. She would love Naboo, too. Little creatures to hunt, warm sun to lay in all day, purring happily as she stretched out in the rays of light.”

Ben moved his hand from Armitage’s hair to brush lightly down the bridge of his nose, and Armitage smiled; it felt like sunlight on his skin. He could almost forget that they were hidden away in an old, dilapidated shack, covered in dust, hiding from their parents and cold. The more Ben talked, the more he could imagine the rain in the air as the scent of a warm, calm lake. That the dust was the scent of an old, but cozy home nestled amongst the hills. 

“As me again,” he said, quietly, looking over at their joined hands. He could feel Ben smile against his hair. 

“Come away with me,” Ben said, just as quiet as he tilted Armitage’s face up to look at him. Armitage leaned up and kissed him, squeezing his hand; he didn’t need to voice his answer, Ben could hear it in his thoughts already. 

_ Yes _ .

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written for this fandom in almost a year T^T but I think I'm back! 
> 
> As usual, leave a prompt AND a comment and I will write it!


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